Loaded Indy 500 Field Won’t Include Gordon

Sunday is opening day of practice for the 86th Indianapolis 500, which has a field reminiscent of an all-comers meet.

Michael Andretti, perhaps the greatest driver to never win, Gil de Ferran, the two-time champion of the CART FedEx Series, and Sam Hornish Jr., the champion of the Indy Racing League, will be in a field that has six former champions-- Arie Luyendyk, Al Unser Jr., Kenny Brack, Eddie Cheever, Buddy Lazier, and last year’s winner, Helio Castroneves.

“Obviously, there are some serious players at Indy this year,” said Winston Cup driver Robby Gordon, who also will compete, along with a few drivers with Formula One experience, such as Johnny Herbert. “I wish Tony Stewart was going over. That’s one player we’d like to have. If we had him, we’d have everybody. I’d love to see Jeff Gordon.”

Everybody would love to see Jeff Gordon, the four-time Winston Cup champion. But Gordon has no plans to race the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 on the same day, as Robby Gordon and Stewart have done.

“The race is something that appeals to me, but to do them both in one day really doesn’t,” Jeff Gordon said.

“I’d be sweating it out all day long, whether or not I’m going to be able to make it [for the start of the night Winston Cup race in Charlotte]. If it rained one single drop [in Indianapolis] I’d be freaking out.

“I know what the guys on these race teams do, the effort they put into each event, especially the big events, and if I’m off doing another race, what would be going through their minds is, ‘It’s a neat opportunity for Jeff, but is he really going to be 100% here with us when he gets back?’ I don’t want those guys to ever doubt how bad I want to win Winston Cup races.

“It’s different for me too, because I’m a part owner, and I play a much larger role than just a driver.”

Gordon said he has had several offers to race at Indy, but he remembers his early days, when he tried to get involved in open-wheel racing in the CART series.

“I think it goes back to [trying] to pursue Indy cars and getting turned down by those guys,” he said. “I went to CART races, I went to the Indy 500 and talked to a lot of people. They all said, ‘Yeah, we’d love to put you into our car. Bring this much money and you’ve got a deal.’ To me, that didn’t send a very good message.

“I went down and started talking to the NASCAR guys and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re looking for a talented driver that can get the job done, and we’ll find the sponsorship if we can get the right person in there.’ That, to me, was the opportunity I was looking for.”

Ironically, the loss of Gordon contributed to Tony George’s forming the Indy Racing League, and today, the CART-IRL split helps keep Gordon away.

“The split made it less appealing,” he said. “Now it seems to be coming back around, now you have the Andrettis and Unsers and some really talented drivers in the IRL and some really top teams coming in there. The competition is a lot tougher, a lot stiffer.

“That makes it more appealing, but I’m pretty comfortable doing it the way I’m doing it now.”

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PJ Jones will make his first Indy 500 start after being selected by team owner John Menard as the replacement for injured Jaques Lazier, who fractured a vertebra in a race crash with Tomas Scheckter at Nazareth, Pa., on April 21. Jones, son of 1963 winner Parnelli Jones, will be a teammate of Robby Gordon. Lazier, of Alta Loma, was released from the hospital on Tuesday and could be out of racing for as long as six months.

Indianapolis Motor Speedway has installed so-called “soft walls” in its turns. The SAFER (Steel and Foam Energy Reduction) barrier system, developed by the IRL and the University of Nebraska Lincoln’s Midwest Roadside Safety Facility, makes IMS the first superspeedway to use energy-absorbing walls.

The IRL has informed Penske Cars that it will not be selected as a chassis manufacturer for the series in 2003.

Motorcycles

Costa Mesa Speedway will open its 34th season Saturday at the Orange County Fairgrounds. Chris Manchester, who won the Spring Classic on April 13, will carry the No. 1 plate this season, and leads a field including such riders as Bart Bast, Bobby Schwartz, Gary Hicks, Mike Faria, Josh Larsen and Shawn McConnell. Gates open at 5:30 p.m., and racing begins at 7:30.

Ricky Carmichael’s 250cc victory last weekend in Salt Lake City gave the Honda rider his second consecutive AMA/EA Sports Supercross title. The season ends Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas with a pay-per-view event that includes the 125cc East-West Shootout. Carmichael will be going for his 10th victory in 16 races.

Yamaha rider David Vuillemin is second to Carmichael, and seven-time champion Jeremy McGrath needs a victory on his Yamaha to extend to 10 his streak of consecutive seasons with a victory.

Honda rider Nicky Hayden, who has won two of three races this season in the AMA Chevy Trucks U.S. Superbike Championship series, has a 14-point lead over Yamaha’s Anthony Gobert as they head into Round 4 this weekend at Sears Point in Sonoma.

Water Sports

It’s not that Kelle Skelton wants to carry the flag for women in the International Jet Sport Boating Assn. Pro Watercraft Tour today and Saturday at San Buenaventura State Beach in Ventura, it’s just that the 21-year-old has a history of beating the men she competes against.

The New Zealander didn’t begin riding competitively until 1998 but by 2001, she was the national champion in her native New Zealand in pro runabout superstock 1200 and 785 classes, meaning no men were titleholders in the premier classes.

“After completing my first season [as pro-am women’s runabout national champion] in New Zealand, the next step was to race the men,” Skelton said. “It’s just a matter of being the best I can be, and in return, that could be the best in the world. I still feel I’m a long way off, but you can’t get better competition than what’s here.”

Her Kawasaki teammates, Chris MacClugage of Canyon Lake and Dustin Moutzouris of Irvine, who finished first and third last season in the premiere 1200 pro runabout, again figure to be among the favorites on the tour, which continues May 10-11 at Oceanside Pier, and May 17-18 at Moonlight Beach in Encinitas.

Yamaha riders Dustin Farthing of Stuart, Fla., and Nicolas Ruis of Lake Havasu City, Ariz., who finished second and fourth, also figure to fight for the title.

Rallying

The largest field for the Rim of the World Rally, 79 entrants, will begin racing tonight at Palmdale in the SCCA Pro Rally Championship series. The field is one of the event’s deepest. Rod Millen, who will compete with his son, Rhys, for the factory Mitsubishi team, is driving his first rally in years.

Defending Open series champion Mark Lovell and Ramana Lageman will drive for Subaru, and Mark Higgins and eight-time champion Paul Choiniere for Hyundai.

Two nonfactory drivers also figure to make a run for the victory, Richard Tuthill in a Mitsubishi, and David Higgins, who is on a two-race winning streak in a Subaru.

The parade lap begins at 6:30, racing begins at 7 adjacent to the Holiday Inn in Palmdale, then continues Saturday at 9 a.m., with the first car expected to finish about 10 p.m.

Last Laps

Ricky Gaunt took first and Steve Ostling second in last week’s SCRA sprint car race at Perris Auto Speedway, foiling third-place Cory Kruseman’s bid for a third consecutive main event victory there. Perris, which features super stocks, champ trucks, dwarf cars and lightning sprints on Saturday, will have freestyle motorcycle riders tonight at 8 as part of the Freestylemx.com tour. Kruseman will be after his second straight Jeff Bagley Classic victory Saturday when the SCRA sprint car series makes its season debut at Ventura Raceway.

Irwindale Speedway will have the super late models, super stocks, legends, American race trucks and modified 4s Saturday night. After four races in super late models, Tony Green of Oak Hills has already opened a 44-point lead over Brent Reynolds of Escondido.

The NHRA announced that its Summit Sport Compact drag racing series has added a new category, pro V-8.... Longtime Winston West driver Hershel McGriff, 74, announced after finishing last in a field of 22 at California Speedway last weekend that he was finished. “Well, I just retired,” he said. “If I cannot keep up, be near the front, have fun and be comfortable, which is how it has been, then I think the time has come.”